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I don't think I was comparing hlcd vs non. I think it was apples to apples and all were the marine speakers on the top row. Yes, I did take the easy way out, but mostly so I didn't show off my ignorance. Many of the audio posts read like Chinese to me.

So, from a simpleton's standpoint:

Polks - Sounded very nice. Good combo of volume & clarity. A fantastic upgrade/option from stock.
Kickers - These are upgrades from stock. They sounded very nice also & I liked the looks.
JL - As mentioned, my favorite. Hard to describe - wasn't the loudest, but was biggest sound. I also appreciated the more reserved look of these speakers.
Exile - Love 'em & have heard them on the boat/water. Lots of volume, sound good but not as good as JL.
Wetsounds - Loud, sound good and looked to be very well made. I'm not a big fan of the look. For some reason it reminds me of something I might find on The Red Baron's bi-plane.

Don't know to what degree the environment impacts my thoughts and if my opinion would change when out on the water. I'm thinking for in boat speakers, the above would stand. For towers, I suppose it all depends on what one wants to accomplish - surf, wakeboard, clean or loud. At one point i my life, I would have gone for loud as he!!, but now I better appreciate the clarity. You could hear everything crisp & clean with the JL's that I couldn't with the others. I listened to the same tracks for comparison. The JL's almost put a vision in my head of the springs on the bottom of a snare drum. Wish I could describe it better.

Bottom line: I really don't think you can go wrong with any of these selections. To each his own in regards to price point and desired performance. A deciding factor for me might be reviews from users in regards to reliability b/c none of this would be considered "cheap" in my book.

I would prefer to hear stuff on the water or at least outside. Room acoustics can make a huge difference. My Exile speakers sound weird in my garage with the tower folded down but outside they are awesome.

I agree with you but I'm not sure how that can be done as everyone sets their systems up differently with how they are powered, how many speakers, speaker types, etc. This setup allows for a good apples to apples comparison.

I can leave you with this final thought: if you want to talk marine stereo setups, call David. He probably has his favorite(s) too, but will give you all the facts you need to make the best decision possible for what you're trying to accomplish.

kaneboats,
Speakers can sound weird in a garage for a number of reasons. Its a terrible place to judge your speakers. A garage can be a bit of an echo chamber so you get an inordinant amount of ambient radiation in comparison to the direct radiation. The reflective wall surfaces serve to reinforce some frequencies while other frequencies suffer from cancellation. The boundaries impact the wall surface to listener and impact the speaker to wall surface. The resulting comb filter modes can be brutal. These are all issues that recording studios are very careful to deal with. And these are all playback issues that are mostly nullified in our soundroom design.